My Ghana Electronic Desk

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Next week, over 150 policymakers and advocates from 27 African countries are scheduled to meet in Kampala, Uganda, to push for accelerated progress in improving maternal, sexual and reproductive health for girls and women. Convened by Partners in Population and Development Africa Regional Office and Women Deliver, a global advocacy organisation that brings together voices from around the world to call for improved health and well being for girls and women , the forum, dubbed Africa Regional Consultation, will bring together about 30 parliamentarians, government ministry officials, civil society representatives and youth advocates. According to a statement issued by the organisers on Tuesday, March 20, 2012, the meeting, scheduled for March 27 to March 28, 2012, is to review regional success stories, examine lessons learned and identify priorities for future international development goals, to reduce maternal mortality and achieve universal access to reproductiv

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Biometric Voter ID that will be used for voting The United States Government has awarded a grant of US $1.2 million through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), to help enhance peaceful and credible elections in December 2012. According to a press release from the public affairs section of the United States Embassy in Ghana,the grant will be used to support a twelve-month project on “civil society interventions toward peaceful and credible elections.” The USAID-assisted CDD-Ghana project aims at enhancing election transparency and credibility, equality of opportunity, and ensuring that the final results are legitimate and accepted by all parties, the release stated further. It says the agreement will enable CDD-Ghana, in collaboration with the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), independently assess activities and events with the objective of strengthening the electoral pr

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE A section of the MCA funded George Walker Bush Motorway The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ghana is assisting in the rehabilitation of four existing gravel roads in the Kpando and Hohoe districts in the Volta Region of the country, to help boost farming and improve access of rural communities to markets and services. A statement from the United State’s Embassy in Accra, says the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA), will implement the $4.3 million project expected to be completed by July 2012. According to the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Ghana, in total, USAID/Ghana will fund the rehabilitation of 46 kilometers of four gravel roads: Dzigbe Junction-Dzigbe Tornu, Kpando-Alavanyo Kpeme, Aveti Tafi Atome-Logba Alakpeti and Tafi Atome-Vakpo Fu-Tafi Abuife. “These feeder roads connect rural farming communities to the main trunk roads in the area, and will improve farmers’ access to markets, financial institutions, farm in

BYEDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Ghana joins fellow Africa countries – Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Nigeria in the use of a Biometric Voters’ Register for its general elections, come Saturday, March 24, 2012 to May 5, 2012 when it commences registration of an envisaged 12 million eligible voters. And it is not for nothing that Ghana, which has since 1992 conducted successful multi-party elections with steady improvement in credibility and efficiency, has opted for the biometric register. Proffering a reason for organising a roundtable discussion on Ghana’s decision to go biometric on the heels of a similar exercise conducted by the Editors Forum, Ghana in February this year, the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), in a press release signed by its Executive Director, Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, said “Although the country is seen as a shining example of a liberal multi-party democracy in Africa, elections in Ghana have been fraught with many challenges, including a flawed voters’ reg

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman, Electoral Commission of Ghana, has reiterated that Ghanaians incarcerated in the country’s prisons will be given an opportunity to vote in the upcoming general elections. He said in view of that steps have been taken to ensure they take part in this month’s biometric registration that will take place across the country. Answering a question on whether prisoners in Ghana would also be biometrically registered to vote during the country’s December general elections, after he had addressed a roundtable discussion held in Accra, Dr. Afari-Gyan said “Yes, the prisoners – we will register them and they will vote.” The EC Chairman however stated there are issues that need to be addressed before the registration commences. He listed them as the inability of   stakeholders to agree prisoners be allowed to vote in both Presidential and Parliamentary elections and what constituencies they should vote in. “But the fact of the matter is, if

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Ghana’s Electoral Commission has projected that it will biometrically register 12 million eligible voters in 40 days, for the country’s upcoming elections scheduled for December 7, 2012, when the much debated registration exercise takes off on March 24, 2012. Disclosing this Wednesday March 7, 2012 in Accra at a roundtable discussion organised by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman of the Electoral Commission (EC), stated; “We will be doing our registration in 40 days and we do not expect to go far beyond 12 million”. The EC Chairman said the projection is based on figures so far received from the Statistical Service of Ghana on Ghana’s last census conducted in 2010. He explained that although the final report on the census has not been released by the Statistical Service, the regional and national figures have been computed and forwarded to them, apart from the district figures which are yet to be completed by the Se

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE The Electoral Commission of Ghana, has stated that birth and baptismal certificates will no longer be accepted as proof of one’s status as a Ghanaian citizen. Making this known in Accra at a roundtable discussion on Ghana’s biometric registration exercise on March 24, 2012, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, Chairman, Electoral Commission of Ghana, said the decision had been informed by the easy access to those documents by even non-Ghanaians. Panellists at the Roundtable Discussion with EC Chair 2nd from right Answering a question posed by a participant at the discussion held by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG)   in collaboration with the Civic Forum Initiative (CFI) with support from the European Commission, Star-Ghana and the African Capacity Building Foundation, he said “Some of the documents you mentioned are no longer valid”. He said according to the parliamentary committee charged with looking into issues relating to elections in the country “With bir

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dr. Daniel Kertize presenting the computers to Mrs. Marvi Colerangle -Ashun, OIC for SHEP Unit The Schools Health Education Programme (SHEP) unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Wednesday March 7, 2012, took delivery of 20 computers, 40 printers and accessories from the World Health Organisation (WHO), valued at about US $50,881.98, at a short ceremony in Accra, Ghana. The presentation thus brings to 40, the desktop computers so far presented to GES by WHO, to aid Ghana scale-up a Health Academy School project which it joined in 2006. The first presentation made up of 20 desktop computers, was valued at US $17,117.00, which therefore brings the total value of computers, printers and accessories presented to GES, to US $67,998.98. The Health Academy School project, which is an innovative approach by WHO to improve health through technology, was launched in December 2003. It was however not until 2006, that Ghana and The Gambia were selected in Africa to

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Dr. Daniel Kertize, WHO Country Representative  Ghana’s Education Service and the Africa Regional Office and Headquarters of the World Health Organisation in Accra, have embarked on a six-month project named the Health Academy School project. It provides health information to the general public and specific targets for the purpose of health improvement and was incorporated into WHO's eHealth Strategy presented to the WHO Executive Board and to the World Health Assembly in 2005, in collaboration with other Clusters within WHO. According to the WHO, the Health Academy Initiative, which is wholly being financed by the organisation, is intended to provide health information to the general public through eLearning, and it is designed to help people make the right decisions about their health thus reducing disease. The Health Academy was initiated with a pilot project in schools in the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 2003, which a

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE To coincide with this year’s International Women’s Day marked March 8, 2012, t he NEPAD Spanish Fund for African Women Empowerment, yesterday, approved funding for 31 projects in Sub-Saharan African countries worth 8,209,745 Euros in its determination to empower women in the region and boost development. According to a press release from the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency which announced this, the projects were selected from more than 600 proposals received from non-governmental organisations, grassroots groups, academic institutions and regional economic communities across sub-Saharan Africa, by the Steering Committee of the Fund in Madrid on February 29, 2012 and scheduled for completion between 12 and 24 months . Commenting on the approved funding, NEPAD Agency’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said "NEPAD and the Government of the Kingdom of Spain share a common goal of advancing gender equality and gender equity,” adding,

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Although urbanisation in itself is not bad, as it refers to larger populations migrating to urban areas in nations across the world, new findings show that women are the most disadvantaged as society grapples with inadequate services as a result of disproportional growth. According to a new research published by the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) with support from the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) March 8, 2012 to mark International Women’s Day, residents of low-income and informal urban settlements suffer hugely from inadequate living conditions and limited access to services, which puts a disproportionate burden on women’s unpaid time and results in far-reaching consequences for their well-being. The study shows that although urbanisation presents women with more job opportunities, greater independence and fewer economic and cultural constraints, it does not always result in a fairer distribution of wealth

BY EDMUND SMITH-ASANTE Front desk of one of the new Care Centres Deputy Minister for Greater Accra, Nii Djamah Vanderpuye, earlier this week joined Nokia as Special Guest of Honour, to launch two new care centres in the city of Accra The new centres are located at Asylum Down Roundabout and the Circle Mobile market. Speaking at the launch event, the Deputy Minister commended Nokia for its track record of producing durable reliable and innovative phones, saying, the opening of Care Centres in Accra underscores the value Nokia places on customer satisfaction. Identifying with the challenges of counterfeiting that have become prevalent in the mobile industry, Nii Djamah Vanderpuye said while government will strive to confront the problem with the relevant agencies, he was confident that Nokia’s approach of providing superlative after-sales service to owners of genuine Nokia phones will help win the war against counterfeiting and thus called on Nokia to continue in its leadership rol